Ecological Literacy Immersion ProgramBuilding Our Regenerative FutureA 4-Week Certificate ProgramJuly 5–31
Solving today’s challenges requires ecological literacy, an understanding of the core principles that underlie all natural systems. Using the framework of regenerative design, this innovative 4-week residential certificate program explores ways to deepen awareness and understanding of how to live and work with greater alignment to natural systems. More

In October 2013, Omega hosted a number of leaders and visionaries in the field of sustainability for the annual Omega Center for Sustainable Living conference, Where We Go From Here. With a unique whole-systems perspective that recognizes the interdependence of all things, the conference explored opportunities for an interdependent world and offered creative solutions to the complex global challenges facing us today.More

During the Ecological Literacy Immersion Program (ELIP), participants visited Hawthorne Valley Farm to learn about cultivating both outer and inner landscapes.
ELIP is a program of the Omega Center for Sustainable Living (OCSL).
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Discover new ways to understand natural systems and how to live and work within them. The Ecological Literacy Immersion Program invites people from all walks of life with a passion for exploring ecological design from a social, economic, and spiritual perspective. Listen to those who have had the profound experience of learning and working with like-minded individuals to discover the beauty and wisdom of nature and whole systems thinking.
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The Ecological Literacy Immersion Program invites people from all walks of life with a passion for exploring ecological design from a social, economic, and spiritual perspective. Listen to those who have had the profound experience of learning and working with like-minded individuals to discover the beauty and wisdom of nature and whole systems thinking.
Learn more about the Ecological Literacy Immersion ProgramMore

Poet Rafael Casal gave a rousing performance at the Omega Center for Sustainable Living Conference, Where We Go From Here. Hear how he describes sustainability from the perspective of those living in South Central Los Angeles, his home. Explore more from Rafael Casal: http://www.eomega.org/workshops/teachers/rafael-casal.
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Like many people, Majora Carter, eco-enterpreneur and founder of Sustainable South Bronx, had always aspired to move beyond from the community where she grew up. But after she moved away, and then returned home from college, she realized the political and economic vulnerability of her home neighborhood, and she knew she had to do something about it.
Watch Majora Carter via the Where We Go From Here Conference Live StreamMore

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Omega: How did you get started preserving food at home?
Marisa: I grew up doing it with my mom. We lived in Portland, Oregon, and had apple trees and blackberry bushes in and around our yard and in the neighborhood. We’d go picking and do a little canning—not tons and tons, but I knew how to do it. When I was in my mid-20s I went blueberry picking one day, and came home with 13 pounds of blueberries. That was the instigator. I canned some jam and I loved it. I wanted to do more, and it just went from there. More

"There's a great space in which this moment takes place. There's a great silence that is listening to the thoughts," says Adyashanti, a spiritual teacher who leads silent retreats at Omega and elsewhere.
“In the end it’s all very simple. Either we give ourselves to silence or we don’t,” he says.
But how can we find silence in the cacophony of our modern world? Cities have always been loud, but noise has now crept into the suburbs, and even the wild, and is nearly impossible to escape. More

Anyone who has been closely involved in social or environmental justice work for a while is likely to have experienced moments of complete overwhelm, even sometimes to the point of hopelessness. It’s very easy to feel like all of your best efforts aren’t amounting to much of anything. It’s during those times that staying grounded is so important. More

Today we live in an era of information, statistics, metrics, and measures. In nearly all aspects of life things are quantified by data—sometimes, it seems, to the point that the metric becomes confused with the thing being measured.
The Dominance of the GDP
In economics this preoccupation with data manifests itself in the close scrutiny of the Gross Domestic Product. Is the GDP growing? Is it growing fast enough? What can we do to increase its growth? More

Land has memory. Just walking along a road you can often see the remaining marks of past land use. Here in the Northeast you can see the patterns of agriculture in stone walls, once boundaries of fields and property, now running through woodlands—an impression of past economy and past society.
Recalling with a critical and cataloging eye the landscapes of our youth, as well as the current landscapes we live in, can be a useful tool to assess the natural world and to help ground us in it. More

Bake Your Own BreadNo matter the style of bread you make—a hearty, country-style loaf, a light baguette, corn bread, tortilla, pita, naan, or a gluten-free variation on any of these—learning how to make one of the most basic foods there is for yourself can be powerfully nourishing. More

"We do not quit playing because we grow old; we grow old because we quit playing." While it's unclear exactly who coined this phrase, it's a sentiment worth taking to heart.
Play is an essential part of life. But what exactly is it? Like art, we know it when we see and experience it. More